


The Captain Goes Down With The Ship

by peridotdiamonds



Category: Original Work
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:15:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25198348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peridotdiamonds/pseuds/peridotdiamonds
Summary: idk i wrote this at 4am on election day





	The Captain Goes Down With The Ship

_  
[Taking fire. Attempting to return fire.............]_

_[Weapons array disabled. Standby for countermeasures......]_

_[Deploying evasive manoeuvres.]_

_[Alert: Critical damage. Engine overheat. Reactor shielding at 43% integrity.]_

_[Power Levels: 30%. Reactor failure estimated in 26 minutes. Immediate evacuation recommended.]_

_[Hull breach: Starboard Crew Quarters.]_

_[Critical Oxygen loss. Evacuate all personnel.]_

__

—

Liquid drains out of the tank, as colour returns to the captain’s pale white skin.

He steps out of the pod with a patter, as remnants of the fluid splash on the ground. The room is strangely empty; an eerie silence cloaks the entire room. 

Then his hearing returns, and the deafening sound of alarms replaces the complete silence. 

[Evacuate. Evacuate. Evacuate. Evacute.]

The blaring warning does naught to tell him what has happened; he rushes to the nearest computer and starts typing. He pulls up a diagram of the ship, and the entire silhouette of the ship is flashing red, with new entries joining the list of Critical Errors every second. He tries to stay calm, but the captain and his ship have never seen war, and he is not ready. 

[Evacuate. Evacuate. Evacuate.]

“Ehg......”

He tries to speak, to issue a command, but he cannot. He turns to the computer, tapping furiously, desperately trying to remember how to navigate it. 

[Now showing route to nearest evacuation pod.......]

Yellow arrows light up along the ground, illuminating his path. He stumbles down the trail, his frail, newly defrosted body sluggish and slow. He rounds the corner, and the pod is in sight. He is saved!

He runs as fast as he can towards the pod, his salvation, and he stretches out to reach it.........

Right as the entire pod is blown to pieces in front of him. A gaping hole now stands where his saviour once stood, and he realises what will happen a split second before it does.

Air begins rushing out, eager to escape the steel prison it has been trapped it, eager to venture into the nothingness of space. 

He is less willing, but he is brought along anyway. 

He clings desperately to the jagged metal surrounding the hole, even as he feels the oxygen being taken away from him, even as the freezing cold of the void threatens to swallow him. He cannot breathe. He cannot feel his legs. His hand begins to slip, and his vision begins to fade to black, as the infinite darkness takes hold of him and claims him as its own.

A pink laser flies into the other side of the side, blasting yet another gaping hole in its hull. The shock throws him back in through the hole he was just violently tugged through, and he scrambles to find purchase on the cold, hard floor of the spaceship. His foot finds a chip in the ground, and he jams his toes into it, desperately trying to avoid being tugged back into the grasp of death. It is so, so cold, and he is so, so tired. He feels his grip loosen, and his foot begins to slide out of its hidey-hole. Maybe letting go isn’t so bad, maybe dying won’t be too painful, he reasons. He begins to let go, unable to bear the torment of the emptiness that so desperately wants to consume him. 

A shutter slides over the hole in the wall, instantly sealing it. He falls to the ground, no longer pulled by the air gushing out of the puncture like water from a hose, and pain shoots through his entire body. His legs are completely frozen, and blood flows freely from a gash in his palm. He turns himself over with a groan and a stifled scream of pain. He looks to his blackened, frostbitten legs, and he knows that he will not make it any further. He sits and leans against the wall, panting, and closes his eyes. He is incredibly tired, and he has tried very, very hard, and this time around, he reasons, he should be allowed to take a nap. A very, very long nap. 

As the pain and blaring alarms fade into nothing, he thinks of a line he heard somewhere, although he is no longer sure when. 

“The captain goes down with the ship.”

And now, in his opinion, is as good a time as any to start being the captain.


End file.
